Through the Eyes of Keaven

16Feb/114

Magicka

Casting a Fire PAoE

I really, really, *really* wish this game had a different control scheme.

Magicka, a game from Aarowhead Game Studios, is a fantasy game, chock full of pop culture and industry jokes, where you wield magic to save the day, guided by your honorable instructor Vlad, who is most definitely not a vampire.

Two things make this game super fun for me. First, the game environment is just awesome. With so many games trying very hard to not break immersion, it's refreshing to play a game that throws that all out the window and just litters itself with pop culture references. Don't get me wrong, immersion is an important staple to good game design for some very solid reasons. Every now and then, though, it's nice to just have some silly fun. If all games were like that, this wouldn't be anywhere near as impactful.

Second, I get a big kick out of mixing my own magic. In Magicka, you have access to a set of basic eight elements, (fire, water, frost, earth, lightning, arcane, healing, and shield .. there are other combo elements you can learn, like steam and ice, but you have to figure those out and they don't add to your hotkey list). You then queue up these elements in various combinations to create your spells. These can then be cast in one of 4 ways: on yourself, as a projectile/beam/cone, as a PBAoE, or on your melee weapon.

Filed under: Gaming, Reviews Continue reading

8Feb/113

RIP Jewel the Dog

RIP Jewel - 02/06/2011

The afternoon of Sunday, February 6, 2011, John and I took our dogs (Kirby and Pipi) over to my parents house. My brother's dog, Jewel, a beautiful brindle Boxer, has stayed at my parents house for the past few years and quickly became part of the family, thanks to her sweet disposition, and cuddly affection towards everyone who walked through the door.

Jewel loved playing with Kirby and Pipi. She would spend time at our place when my parents would go on vacation - usually just a weekend here or there, but occasionally we would get to watch her for whole weeks at a time. She was always the best behaved dog in the house, and would constantly be trying to get the two boys to play tag!

I'm very, very happy we got to go over to the house yesterday for them to play together again. It turns out, it would be the last time.

My mom called me this evening to inform me Jewel suffered a major stroke yesterday, shortly after we had left. She had suffered from ongoing heath problems, and this last year had been particularly hard on her. For the sake of the pain she had been in, this is a blessing - she can finally be at peace. We, however, are now suffering the pain losing her has caused.

She was one of the sweetest dogs I have ever known. Though she has always been my brother's dog, and he loved her more than anything, Jewel padded her way into my heart, with those big brown eyes full of affection, and the way she would cuddle up to you as though she was trying her damnedest to give you a hug.

Rest in peace, sweet Jewel. You will be sorely missed. I think God you are no longer in pain, and thank you for the years of love you gave me and my family. You will never be forgotten.

Filed under: Family 3 Comments

7Feb/111

Character Profile: Scopes

Resistance Fighter, Scopes

Game	City of Heroes
Name	Scopes
Archetype	Corruptor
Origin	Technology
Primary	Duel Pistol
Secondary	Pain Domination

Scopes is my Duel Wielding Corruptor (sic). Yes, I said Corruptor. Though Scopes fights for the Resistance in Pretoria, I chose to use the Villain archetype, Corruptor. That's one of the fantastic things about the Going Rogue expansion: You're able to play along the lines of Morality, creating deeper, more complex, character development than before. A traditionally "evil" archetype, seeing the corruption (heh) of Emperor Cole, can come to the aid of the populous - Having a deeper concern for the general well-being of the population than for his own petty criminal activities, is one of the things you were not able to do in the old Black and White, Good and Evil system of City of Heroes/Villains. With Going Rogue, however, you can... and are encouraged to.

Tagged as: Characters, CoH, MMO Continue reading

3Feb/110

My GDC11 Wishlist

Game Developers Conference

Oh, that my heart could have it's desire, without giving pause to the limitations of money, schedules, or logistics.

This year's Game Developers Conference (02/28/11 - 3/4/11) has quite a few tutorials, lectures, and workshops I would love to be able to attend. Since I can't, I thought I would be fun (and slightly tortuous) to slap together a schedule of what I would be doing if I was there. Come and shed a tear with me as we take this journey together, into the lands of Wouldn't It Be Cool If?

Tagged as: Education, GDC Continue reading

2Feb/111

Revisiting the Return to CoH

Going Rogue's Maelstrom

In my last post I mentioned how I was trying out the new Demon Summoning Mastermind power set. It was double xp weekend, and I ran around with a buddy of mine (who also picked up Demon Summoning), getting ourselves close to level 20 before the weekend was up.

Unfortunately, Sunday night I was just sitting there in Praetoria and suddenly became aware of something: I hated my character. I liked the demons I was summoning, but I didn't like the rest of that power set; I found the whip attacks to be slow, clumsy, boring, and lacking in variety. Here I was, nearly lvl 20, and in every fight I was relying on my veteran reward powers to get me through. Don't get me wrong, the veteran reward powers are great, and I've never minded using them, but they've always been supplemental powers to me before. This was the first time that these powers had become my main attacking force, and the actual power set powers fell back into supporting roles. I didn't like that feeling at all.

Sunday night, around 10PM, the last night of double xp weekend, I created a new character.

I decided to try out duel pistols. I haven't had so much fun playing in a very long time Granted, progression is much slower for me now (well.. progression is normal for me now, since we're back to slandered xp gains), but the only veteran reward power I have on my hotbar is Sands of Mu.